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The Sky at Night - The End

palebluedot

By palebluedot
in The Astro Lounge

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adrianelliott

adrianelliott

Posted
Posted

If you look at the guides they publish on their commissioning pages (links below), you can see that they are moving to more one-off type programmes, or annual events like Stargazing Live, rather than rely on series-based delivery.

I think this hits the nail on the head.  Astronomy is a specialist interest and casual people are unlikely to just 'tune in' to S@N for fun.  I think it makes more sense to have annual or one off events which the BBC can market effectively and create some hype around.

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SteveNickolls

SteveNickolls

Posted
Posted

I think this hits the nail on the head.  Astronomy is a specialist interest and casual people are unlikely to just 'tune in' to S@N for fun.  I think it makes more sense to have annual or one off events which the BBC can market effectively and create some hype around.

Surely a lot of us first 'tuned in' to S@N, maybe just out of casual interest, got hooked and made astronomy our hobby? If it wasn't there...we maybe would have become better cooks, dancers or tried to sing. Let's all try our hardest to support keeping S@N on the BBC.

Cheers,

Steve

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PeterW

PeterW

Posted
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Will work up something and sent it to a number if places..... Thought the Beeb was doing well, what with the summer of nature..... Don't undo the hard work! Making a 30min per month broadcast could be taken on as a vodcast.... Which plenty of people do online.... The current crew (helped by some reporters in the US etc) should be able to keep up the output with the help of a few others. You could evenake it in HD.... How many of us have that capability in our pockets already..... Axe it not, let's keep it alive and well into the future.... Not as if astronomy and space have stopped changing!

PEterW

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earth titan

earth titan

Posted
Posted

Blimey.

This thread has grown some considerable legs in a couple of days?

Have to say I'm not convinced by rumours until they happen.... The only search result that mentions this, that I can find on google, is this thread.... :) .... although there is one from the Daily Mirror in 2011 that both S&N and Blue Peter are to be axed....... Ho humm....

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/will-blue-peter-and-the-sky-at-night-survive-272360

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andyman

andyman

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Posted

if sky@night is sadly axed fingers crossed its not.What are the chances that it could be adopted by 

another tv channel.After all its happened before with certain programs.Anything is possible i suppose or am i hoping for too much

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palebluedot

palebluedot

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If anyone want to send a "furious from Tunbridge Wells". Here are a few email addresses of senior BBC bods:

Danny.Cohen@bbc.co.uk, Kim.Shillinglaw@bbc.co.uk, John.Lynch@bbc.co.uk, David.Jordan@bbc.co.uk, Janice.Hadlow@bbc.co.uk, Natalie.Humphreys@bbc.co.uk, Emma.Swain@bbc.co.uk

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palebluedot

palebluedot

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From Nick Howes on twitter: 


Looks like there is some light at the end of the tunnel - "Just to confirm that whilst technically the last programme is Dec there are on going discussions about its future. The BBC remains committed to the programme" so let's hope hey!

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jezhughes

jezhughes

Posted
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I'm going to have to annoy a lot of people here and be 'on the fence' about this.

Nick Howes tweeted a good point earlier, about how Springwatch proved a shifting format can work. So much so that they now have autumn watch and will probably end up having some other *insert season*watch.

Rather than a monthly show which gets aired at a peculiar time, I would actually rather the BBC did a quarterly Stargazing Live at prime time, or a bi-annually Stargazing Live which ran the Springwatch format and aired at a good time on a good channel throughout the week. I remember the last Stargazing Live, the awareness and media around it was far more amplified than any Sky At Night could dream of. My friends were talking about it, websites were writing about it and it penetrated a new market for the hobby, which S@N struggles to.

If the BBC did a Stargazing Live around October every evening for a whole week, around when galaxy season kicks in and had a different focus on each evening with the usual science and *wow* bits, and with the (0.00001%) possibility of clear skies and live stargazing - then had another 6 months later in say June, when there's still a few interesting targets and clearer skies, any maybe a larger focus on planets for live stargazing; I think it could turn out to be a promising endeavour. They could cater for all levels of astronomers on each of those programmes in the week, and supplement it with editorial online. 

It effectively condenses a years worth of S@N in to a biannual week long schedule, at a better time (which kids can actually watch), covers 6 months worth of science discoveries, caters for all levels of astronomer, only has a week long impact on normal regular scheduling, gets Brian on TV doing his sexy thing, and hopefully would have a larger impact.

This is where some broadcast is moving to, event based scheduling condensing entertainment in to small and more irregular moments which have a bit more impact. It worked for Springwatch, it worked for C4's 'Inside Nature's Giants', it works for X Factor finals, the list goes on.. 

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JB80

JB80

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Well, yes it has pretty much been confirmed that December is the last episode but as has been posted there may be a shift of focus, especially if a backlash is seen or heard. That's an easy cop out for the beeb but positive news none the less.

Still a change of focus is one thing but more one off specials or infrequent airing just wont cut it.

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davew

davew

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From Nick Howes on twitter: 
Looks like there is some light at the end of the tunnel - "Just to confirm that whilst technically the last programme is Dec there are on going discussions about its future. The BBC remains committed to the programme" so let's hope hey!

Is this thread a mobilising thread ? Good idea if it is.

Let's hope the BBC's commitment isn't like a Football chairman's.

Dave.

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wookie1965

wookie1965

Posted
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Signed petition and complaint sent to BBC if more people kick up a stink they will know that we want it to continue how many of us got into this hobby from watching it how many professional Astronomers are there now who got into it by watching S@N im sure Brian Cox did. Without S@N where are the future Astronomers going to come from my lads watch this now im sure many more generations will. 

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